Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight
Why am I trying to see, when there aint nothing in sight
Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try
Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die?
-Tupac Shakur

Now I know Kim Clisters just had a bad day. Those do occur, but Sharapova has shown a consistent decline for quite awhile and the pictures of her "staying out a bit too late" are definitely out there. I think the real problem is that she doesn't train hard for awhile and then she tries to squeeze it all in just before the big tournaments and she just isn't prepared and ready for hardcore tennis.

Now I know Kim Clisters just had a bad day. Those do occur, but Sharapova has shown a consistent decline for quite awhile and the pictures of her "staying out a bit too late" are definitely out there. I think the real problem is that she doesn't train hard for awhile and then she tries to squeeze it all in just before the big tournaments and she just isn't prepared and ready for hardcore tennis.

I was hoping she'd follow in Henin's footsteps and make a comeback, but I was just shocked..

Maria would party, she's a actress/model/celebrity/athlete/fashion designer [explains her choice of clothing for the matches?]. The women doesn't lead a normal life, if you ask me, everything in her life is a rush. But it's sort of admirable, everything in her life, she's worked for.. or you know, at least she used to, money seems to come from all corner for her now.

Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight
Why am I trying to see, when there aint nothing in sight
Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try
Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die?
-Tupac Shakur

I was hoping she'd follow in Henin's footsteps and make a comeback, but I was just shocked..

Maria would party, she's a actress/model/celebrity/athlete/fashion designer [explains her choice of clothing for the matches?]. The women doesn't lead a normal life, if you ask me, everything in her life is a rush. But it's sort of admirable, everything in her life, she's worked for.. or you know, at least she used to, money seems to come from all corner for her now.

That's right. I doubt she hangs out with any tennis players at all. The problem with that is her friends don't understand or even care about her schedule. Those rock stars don't wake up until mid-afternoon, so I imagine she gets phone calls and invitations to do things at all hours. I doubt she turns them down. I don't blame her for wanting to have some fun and lead a "normal" lifestyle, but there is nothing normal about that lifestyle. She is going to kill her legacy if she doesn't recommit herself to her game. Doing the photo shoots, attending fashion shows and concerts, designing outfits, partying, traveling to do all of these things takes away from her time on the court. Any wonder why she is having issues? I also believe that is why she had injuries. Her packed schedule away from the court made her rush her training before tournaments and she tried to pack too much in to her training in too little time. Injuries are inevitable when you do these things.

That's right. I doubt she hangs out with any tennis players at all. The problem with that is her friends don't understand or even care about her schedule. Those rock stars don't wake up until mid-afternoon, so I imagine she gets phone calls and invitations to do things at all hours. I doubt she turns them down. I don't blame her for wanting to have some fun and lead a "normal" lifestyle, but there is nothing normal about that lifestyle. She is going to kill her legacy if she doesn't recommit herself to her game. Doing the photo shoots, attending fashion shows and concerts, designing outfits, partying, traveling to do all of these things takes away from her time on the court. Any wonder why she is having issues? I also believe that is why she had injuries. Her packed schedule away from the court made her rush her training before tournaments and she tried to pack too much in to her training in too little time. Injuries are inevitable when you do these things.

I think for her, there's a lot of confusion on the whole celebrity lifestyle/professional athlete's lifestyle. In the celebrity lifestyle, she is EXPECTED to party till late hours and hang around with the biggest name's of 'Hollywood', and attend events life fashion shows, photo shoots, concerts eg. ,like most celebrity's do. But for professional tennis players, it should be close to the opposite. they don't need the level of fame or publicity a celebrity expects. so, for Maria it would be like all cameras on her, people see her as a celebrity, and she's not saying no to it.
yes, she does need to recommit herself to the game. she needs to just stop the whole 'celebrity''fashion' thing and actually take some time out and focus on her training. she needs to realize that she can't be a TOP PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE and be the best of celebrity stars..

Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight
Why am I trying to see, when there aint nothing in sight
Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try
Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die?
-Tupac Shakur

TK of course, has the inner path to enlightenment.
Safin. JohnDaly in golf. Beckham. LamarOdom in basketball.
Sometimes, the party life is more attractive than practicing and drilling.
Injuries and distractions are often our path FROM greatness.
Besides, who can concentrate on tennis looking at Krilenko on the other side?

TK of course, has the inner path to enlightenment.
Safin. JohnDaly in golf. Beckham. LamarOdom in basketball.
Sometimes, the party life is more attractive than practicing and drilling.
Injuries and distractions are often our path FROM greatness.
Besides, who can concentrate on tennis looking at Krilenko on the other side?

I don't know how enlightened I am, but I just have been around a lot of these players. Many of them have used tennis to get themselves out of a tough situation. Sharapova was one. They had nothing when they came over and now she has everything. Besides, she is more of an extrovert versus the introverted Henin. If Henin had 70 unforced errors, I would wonder what on earth went wrong. But with Sharapova, I am pretty sure I am right. I've seen her 10 sheets to the wind a number of times. And you may be right about the injury getting her on that path. I am not sure about where it all started. I know that there is a lot of jealousy and such towards her on the tour because she is such an icon (or at least was) and I am sure it is much more fun to hang out with the partiers and such as they are more accepting and less competitive than the other ladies on the tour. I am certainly not fussing at her for her choices, but if she wants to be as good as I know she can be, she will have to recommit. At 23, she didn't just lose her game. If she were that injured, she wouldn't play the tournament. There are a lot of excuse makers out there and the easiest thing to point to is an injury. Of course, if I had 10 Jaegerbombs the night before training, I would have injured something too. Probably my face when I landed on it after passing out in mid stride..........